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How can we strengthen the capacity of governments and parties to manage arrivals and departures at the top? Democracy requires reliable processes for the transfer of power from one generation of leaders to the next. This book introduces new analytical frameworks and presents the latest empirical evidence from comparative political research.

The global economic downturn that followed the collapse of major US financial institutions is no doubt the most significant crisis of our times. Its effects on corporate and governmental balance sheets have been devastating, as have been its impacts on the employment and well being of tens of millions of citizens. It continues to pose major challenges to national policymakers and institutions around the world. Managing public uncertainty and anxiety is vital in coping with financial crises. This requires not just prompt action but, most of all, persuasive communication by government leaders. At the same time, the very occurrence of such crises raises acute questions about the effectiveness and robustness of current government policies and institutions. With the stakes being so high, defining and interpreting what is going on, how and why it happened, and what ought to be done now become key questions in the political and policy struggles that crises invariably unleash.

In this volume, we study how heads of government, finance ministers and national bank governors in eight countries as well as the EU engage in such 'framing contests', and how their attempts to interpret the cascading events of the economic downturn were publicly received. Using systematic content analysis of speeches and media coverage, this volume offers a unique comparative assessment of public leadership in times of crisis.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Preface -- 1. Understanding Policy Fiascoes -- 2. Assessing Policy Outcomes: Social and Political Biases -- 3. Identifying Agents: The Ontology of Policymaking -- 4. Identifying Agents: Misfortune or Mismanagement? -- 5. Explaining Agents' Behavior: Implicit Frames -- 6. Evaluating Agents' Behavior: Analysis as Accusing and Excusing -- 7. Epilogue: Making Sense of Policy Fiascoes -- Bibliography -- Index

Abstract
Crises are often viewed as catalysts for change. The coronavirus disease crisis is no exception. In many policy sectors, proponents of reform see this global crisis both as a justification and an enabler of necessary change. Policy scholars have paid ample attention to this crisis-reform thesis. Empirical research suggests that these proponents of crisis-induced change should not be too optimistic. The question remains why some crises give rise to reform whereas so many others do not. This paper focuses on one particular factor that crisis researchers have identified as important. Crisis research suggests that the outcome of the meaning-making process—the efforts to impose a dominant frame on a population—shapes the prospects of postcrisis change. The paper offers three ideal-typical framing scripts, which researchers can use to study postcrisis trajectories.

In recent decades, the policy sciences have struggled to come to terms with the significance of inaction in public policy. Inaction refers to instances when policymakers 'do nothing' about societal issues. This article aims to put the study of inaction on a new footing. It presents a five-part typology of forms of inaction before focusing on detail on core drivers of inaction found at four policy-making loci: individuals (coping behaviour), public organisations (information pathologies), governments (agenda control and protection) and networks (non-coordination and lack of feasibility). Acknowledging the conceptual and methodological challenges of researching inaction, it concludes by identifying strategies for putting 'doing nothing' (back) on the research agenda of the policy sciences.

This article discusses the use of expert ranking methodology for assessing the performance and 'place in history' of heads of government, in particular prime ministers (PMs). It reports an expert ranking study of PMs in the Netherlands. Open/spontaneous as well as criteria-led, more detailed modes of performance assessment are compared. Moreover, the study's findings, pertaining as they do to a PM hemmed in by the need to manage tenuous coalitions in a multi-party consensual democracy, are compared against those of similar exercises conducted for PMs in majoritarian, Westminster style democracies, suggesting that prime-ministerial reputations in multiparty democracies are made on the strength of their longevity in office, their coalition management skills and the policy legacy of their governments.

Leadership succession in democratic governments and political parties is an ubiquitous but relatively understudied phenomen, where the political becomes intensely personal and vice versa. This article outlines the puzzles that leadership succession poses

The processes of replacement of party leaders are well-published events in media outlets across the world's democracies, but are scarcely analysed by political scientists. In this article we examine the extent to which incumbent party leaders are able to

Seen from the outside, the leadership position in a political party or government is coveted by many. Yet party leadership and, possibly in its wake, a prime-ministership or a presidency are 'hot seats' in more than one sense. They are not just hot in terms of the potential for power and authority they bring to those that occupy them; they are also hot in terms of attracting competition and controversy. Leadership of a party is more often than not a precarious possession: not only do political leaders lead their lives constantly in the public eye with all the drawbacks that this entails, but there are also plenty of people ready to criticize their performance. There is no shortage of potential competitors either, all whom are brooding on how and when to take over the top job.